Greatest Composers of All Time

Charles1dad - I highly recommend Jacques Loussier's The Four Seasons and the Brandenburgs albums over the Bach one that I have. His Chopin Nocturnes was by far my least favorite as it sounds pretty much all the same for something like 24 songs. I heard the Brandenburgs first on his album and then purchased the classical version for comparison.

I think it's pretty safe to put Bach, Beethoven and Mozart as the top three, far and away--and forget about rating them against one another.

I personally would list Baroque stalwarts such as Handel, D. Scarlatti and Telemann up there with many of the "also-ran" great composers of later years who seem to get mentioned.

Silly question, but here goes.

Incontestable top 5, chronologically: Bach Mozart, Beethoven Brahms, Stravinsky.

Next 5, slightly more contestable, again chronologically: Haydn, Schubert, Ravel, Bartok, Shostakovich.

Nah. On second thought, the second 5 are incontestable too.

I did learn of Jacques Loussier from Mceljo about a year ago.
And as a Bach fan ended up getting one after another. I believe five in total.
The Brandenburgs is quite good.

Correction: Seven.